FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
5 Saturdays... 5 Quintets... 5 Eras of Miles Davis...
-- celebrating 100 years of Miles --
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Every Saturday in May 2026 -- 100 years after Miles Davis was born -- at Contxt in Toronto, multi-award winning trumpet player BROWNMAN ALI -- heralded as "Canada's preeminent jazz trumpet player" by New York's Village Voice -- will lead 5 different all-star ensembles through 5 historic eras of jazz which Miles Davis catalyzed & immortalized with his presence.
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Week 1 - Sat. May 02: "Young Miles" - The Bird Years
Week 2 - Sat. May 09: "Birth Of The Cool" - Post-Bop Miles
Week 3 - Sat. May 16: "Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years
Week 4 - Sat. May 23: "Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles
Week 5 - Sat. May 30: "Doo-bop" - Had He Lived…
TICKETS: www.miles.brownman.com
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FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
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by Brownman Ali, executive producer Frank Francis
A Tribute to jazz legend Miles Davis
Every Sat in May @ Contxt, Toronto, Canada
www.miles.brownman.com for info and tickets
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Brownman, when asked about the tribute and the musicians behind the music, states, "For those who appreciate jazz as a true art form, FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES represents a rare opportunity to understand its greatest legend's career, where he could have gone and a reminder of what he might have meant to us today. I'm truly honoured to be fronting this sequential tribute and performing with such a monstrous cross-section of players." Brownman has put together a spectacular all-star cast for his production featuring everyone from award-winning Canadian jazz veterans Duncan Hopkins, Ross MacIntyre & Frank Botos, to luminaries in their own generation such as Nick Maclean, Jacob Wutzke & Bennett Young to the best of the youngest new breed of jazz modernists like James Griffith, Joel Bracken & Tymish Koznarsky (all 24 years old). This year will also feature in Week 5 acclaimed rapper N.I.Gel (from the POCKET DWELLERS), internationally acclaimed turntablist Erik Laar (Off Centre DJ School founder) teamed with the BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO bass & drumset phenoms Sean Dennis & Adam Mansfield -- making the Week 5 ensemble an all-star jazz-hip-hop affair. "Whatever age, whatever background, whatever colour - we're all going to be giving all of ourselves over to Miles’ music… to try and do the man and his vision justice”, Brownman concludes.
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"Brownman Ali ... one of the greatest interpreters of Miles Davis' work in Canada."
-- Graham Rockingham, Hamilton Spectator
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FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
Every Sat in May 2026
@ Contxt, 254 Lansdowne Ave. - main floor
Toronto, Canada
info@contxtbytrane.com | www.ContxtByTrane.com
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6:00pm - doors
7:00pm - showtime each Saturday
Dinner reservations at CONTXT are encouraged -- reservations: info@contxtbytrane.com
CONTXT features some of the finest Pan/Caribbean cuisine in Toronto. See MENU www.contxtbytrane.com/menu
Table seating will be given preference to those with dinner reservations on a first come first serve basis.
Ticket holders should arrive before 6pm to ensure optimal seating (band is soundchecking until 6pm)
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EARLY BIRD - ends late April
:: $30 Early Bird special
:: $130 - All-Shows Pass
(All 5 shows for 1 low price)
STANDARD - after Early Bird Ends
:: $35 Advanced
:: $155 - All-Shows Pass
(All 5 shows for 1 low price)
:: $45 at the door if space on show day (unlikely)
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Week 1 - Sat-May-02, 2026
"Young Miles" - The Bird Years
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At 17 years of age Miles would travel across the river from his home in East St. Louis, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri to hear well-known jazz musicians play in clubs. Mesmerized by their talent and style, he would listen to their all night jam sessions until Charlie "Bird" Parker arrived in St. Louis with the Billy Eckstine Band in 1944. Bird was the creative force behind a new form of jazz later to be dubbed "bebop" and the young Miles would become fascinated with its complex melodic and harmonic structure leading Miles to follow Bird across the country until he was allowed to substitute for his trumpet player at the time - Dizzy Gillespie. His tenure as Bird's sideman would most exemplify this hard-swinging period of his life.
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:: Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
:: Tymish Koznarsky - alto sax (24 year old next gen monster)
:: Scott Metcalfe - piano (Jordana Talsky)
:: Ross MacIntyre - upright bass (Matt Dusk)
:: Morgan Childs - drums (Donnybrook)
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Week 1 TIX: https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2134613
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Week 2 - Sat-May-09, 2026
"Birth Of The Cool" - Post-Bop Miles
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The term "cool" came to particular prominence in the 1950s to describe a more cerebral, less impassioned way of playing jazz. It's generally supposed that these sessions were part of the inspiration for the 'cool school' of jazz which flourished, particularly on the West Coast, in the 50s. Miles would confound the public's expectations by departing the bop world of Charlie Parker and embracing this new order of jazz as heard on "Birth Of The Cool" (Capitol Records, '49). This 'cooler' form of expression would gradually over the next 10 years lead to the modal approaches of "Kind Of Blue" (Columbia, '59) free of fixed harmony and the now legendary collaboration with the then rising tenor saxophone icon John Coltrane.
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:: Brownman Ali - trumpet (10x Global Music Award winner)
:: James Griffith - tenor sax (Shuffle Demons, 24 years old!)
:: Josh Smiley - piano (We Three)
:: Bennett Young - upright bass (JUNO nominee)
:: Frank Botos - drums (JUNO nominee)
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Week 2 TIX: https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2137632
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Week 3 - Sat-May-16, 2026
"Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years
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Two quintets in particular featuring 2 tenor saxophone giants dominated Miles' musical life almost exclusively from the mid 50's, right up until the 70's, one featuring John Coltrane and the other featuring Wayne Shorter. This period would feature an assortment of quintets and sextets all pushing the boundaries of improvisation within a simple modal framework, but the two teamings that would leave the world breathless would be those of Coltrane and Shorter. Of those two teamings it would be the Miles-Shorter pairing that would result in some of the most explosively creative & exploratory jazz in Miles' history. "Live at the Plugged Nickel" (Columbia / Legacy, '65) continues to be a paramount recording in the great Miles lineage and considered by many to be some of the most ground-breaking jazz in history.
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:: Brownman Ali - trumpet (JUNO nominee)
:: Joel Bracken - tenor sax (24 year old next gen monster)
:: Nick Maclean - piano (JUNO nominee)
:: Duncan Hopkins - upright bass (JUNO nominee)
:: Jacob Wutzke - drums (JUNO winner - up from Montreal)
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Week 3 TIX: https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2137643
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Week 4 - Sat-May-23, 2026
"From Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles
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Legendary as a kind of line in the sand challenging jazz fans during the ascendance of electric psychedelic rock, "In a Silent Way" (Columbia Records, '69) hinted at the repetitive polyrhythms Davis would employ throughout the early '70s. It also partook generously of electric piano and bass tonal colourings previously explored in acoustic settings, but "In a Silent Way" and the subsequent "Bitches Brew" & "Live Evil" recordings remains a clearly electric jazz record, part ambient color exploration, part rock-inflected energy & vibe, and part outright maverick creativity. Long, breathy solos would be a feature of this era, glistening against his new group's strange admixture of musical moods. Miles would stay on this "electric" path right in to the '80's, continually exploring these textures with newer and younger generations of musicians.
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:: Brownman Ali - electric trumpet (Snaggle)
:: Jay Yoo - guitar (Snaggle)
:: Nick Maclean - keyboards/synth (Snaggle)
:: Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
:: Aaron Seunarine - drums (Teefin' Tingz)
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Week 4 TIX: https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2137646
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Week 5 - Sat-May-30, 2026
"Doo-bop" - Had he lived...
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Towards the end of Miles' life he began an exploration of another sub-component of modern popular music - hip-hop. The "Doo-bop" recording (Warner, '92) would feature rappers & loops and would have marked the beginning of Miles' exploration of this artform. It is often harshly referred to by critics as his "worst" documented recording and as a "forgettable" era of his life, but it still stands strongly as a prime example of the Milesian ethic - his ability to recognize "what's next" and creatively move within and extend that artform. Brownman states, "I believe it is extremely probable that Miles would have worked closely with the likes of Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Rakim, Guru, Big Daddy Kane, junglists, DJs, rappers, beat-makers alike... had he lived. Tonight will be a salute to what MIGHT have been."
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:: Brownman - electric trumpet (Guru's Jazzmatazz / Jay-z)
:: N.I.Gel (Nigel Williams) - rapper (Pocket Dwellers)
:: Erik Laar - turntables (Off Centre DJ School founder)
:: Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
:: Adam Mansfield - drums (Brownman Electryc Trio)
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Week 5 TIX: https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2137647
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ALL SHOWS PASS (all 5 shows for 1 low price):
https://tickets.contxtbytrane.com/events/contxtbytrane/2136369
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Presented by: Caliban Arts Theatre, CONTXTbyTrane, Brownman Music Inc & Browntasauras Records
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ABOUT BROWNMAN ALI | www.Brownman.com
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An internationally acclaimed jazz iconoclast deeply influenced by Miles Davis' output, Brownman Ali is a 2x National Jazz Award winner; 10x Global Music Award winner; 7x Toronto Independent Music Award winner; GRAMMY long-lister; JUNO nominee; and is heralded by the NY Village Voice as "Canada's preeminent jazz trumpet player". He is best known as the last trumpet soloist for legendary jazz-hip-hop outfit Guru's Jazzmatazz (replacing Donald Byrd in this iconic group), now splitting his time between Toronto, ON & Brooklyn, NY, when this Trinidadian-born artist is not leading 8 groups of his own (including the National Jazz Award winning BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO & Montreal Jazz Fest's "Grand Prix du Jazz" winners CRUZAO). He is also a highly in-demand studio session musician having appeared on over 300 recordings to date, and is the CEO of the acclaimed Brooklyn-based record label BROWNTASAURAS RECORDS. His bombastically narrative style as an improviser, often reminiscent of 60's Miles Davis, has made him one of the most sought after soloists today and widely regarded as "a vanguard for the evolution of jazz in Canada".